symmetry

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The comment about the symmetry is absolutely brilliant-how'd you notice that?

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Definitions (35)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Exact correspondence of form and constituent configuration on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane or about a center or an axis. See Synonyms at proportion.
  2. noun A relationship of characteristic correspondence, equivalence, or identity among constituents of an entity or between different entities: the narrative symmetry of the novel.
  3. noun Beauty as a result of balance or harmonious arrangement.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Ceramics and Pottery Which principle of art is described by the term symmetry? —  Answerbag: Latest Questions in Question Categories
  • If the natural color of the wood is not desired, the wood may first be stained, the filler being colored somewhat darker than the stain Procure enough lumber to make all the pieces shown in the detail drawing and finish to the dimensions shown, being careful to make the corresponding pieces exactly alike in order to preserve the perfect symmetry which is necessary in work of this kind. —  Mission Furniture How to Make It, Part I
  • At present the interior has less obvious evidence of age than any other English building of its date, but for this the modern restorer is not entirely responsible, as Wyatt rendered much alteration needful, and the design of the work has, as we have remarked elsewhere, a curiously modern quality in its finish and symmetry which is apt to mislead a casual observer FOOTNOTES 1] The headpiece is from an engraving in Walpoole's "British Traveller 2] A paper on this subject was printed in the Wiltshire Archćological Mag., No. —  Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum
  • But a closer examination shows that this lack of symmetry is apparent only when figures VII: VII¹ are considered individually, and apart from the scenes to which they belong. —  The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1
  • The symmetry, the neatness, the admirable order of the trees, the abundance and diversity of unknown fruits, their freshness and beauty, delighted me. —  The Arabian Nights Entertainments
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin symmetria, from Greek summetriā, from summetros, of like measure : sun-, syn- + metron, measure; see mē-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also symmetrie, simmetrie; from Old French symmetrie, French symétrie = Spanish simetría = Portuguese symetria = Italian simetria, simmetria = Dutch simmetrie = German symmetrie = Swedish Danish symmetri, from Latin symmetria, from Greek συμμετρία, agreement in dimensions, arrangement, etc., due proportion, from σύμμετρος, having a common measure, commensurate, even, proportionate, moderate, in due proportion, symmetric, from σύν, with, + μέτρον, measure.
 

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/ˈsɪmɛtri/
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